Social Media

The top beer brand on Twitter is...

Memorial Day weekend kicks off the start to the summer beer drinking season and you can be sure social-media-savvy beer drinkers will be engaging with their favorite brands as they sip their summer brews.

But which brands will make the most of those interactions? A recently released study took a look at the beer brands that do the best job of engaging their followers on Twitter.

The winner: @MillerLite, according to social data and analytics firm Engagement Labs.

The study assessed brand performance according to engagement, or the level of interaction content receives on a specific social network; impact, or the reach content receives on a specific social network; and responsiveness, or how much, how fast and how well a brand responds to actual conversations among its users.

Read more: Not just for firemen: One brew stokes flames of sizzling market

Hero Images | Getty Images

Each brand was given an eValue score, which is a composite of the engagement, impact and responsiveness scores, with 100 being the highest score possible. The study used data from April 26 to May May 10.


@MillerLite took the top spot in the study with a top score of 84.5, the result of putting an emphasis on Twitter campaigns that encourage a high level of engagement with its followers.

Engagement Labs cited Miller Lite's Twitter campaigns like "Share their summer" and "We'll show America," which encourage followers to submit their own photos using #ItsMillerTime. The brand then retweets and favorites the images.

"This type of engagement with their audience generated both high impact and engagement scores, which is evident as they also have the highest sub metrics for retweets and favorites, far exceeding the competition," said Bryan Segal, CEO of Engagement Labs.

Taking the second spot was @StellaArtois, which uses a similar yet slightly different approach.

Anheuser-Busch InBev's Stella Artois engaged its followers with its own original content rather than follower-generated content. The brand posted professional photos tied to events like the Kentucky Derby, which led to a high level of retweets and favorites from @StellaArtois followers.

"The @StellaArtois audience is extremely active with 22 percent of their followers engaging with their content," said Segal.

Read more: And the most loved beer label is ...

Not surprisingly, @BudLight took a hit in the wake of its well-publicized blunder in its #UpForWhatever campaign.

"Bud Light publicly apologized on Twitter and then they were not as active on the account in the days following, causing their responsiveness score to dip," Segal said.

Corona Extra placed tenth, with an overall score of 45.4, because the brand's engagement was hurt by its focus on its own content and tweets that market their beer, according to Engagement Labs.

"They had very little engagement with their followers, which was reflected by a low number of shares and retweets of follower-generated content," said Segal.

Top 10 beer brands on Twitter

Rank Twitter handle Score
1MillerLite84.5
2StellaArtois82.5
3BudLight81
4CoorsLight73
4Budweiser 73
6Heineken72.8
7LabattUSA 72.6
8PabstBlueRibbon 62.5
9SamuelAdamsBeer 61.9
10CoronaExtraUSA 45.4

Source: Engagement Labs
Berkshire Hathaway Live Event